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He added: “Our campaign was led by the area Conservatives and it was shambolic from start to finish.

“I feel we could have protected our only seat on the council and won more if we’d approached it all differently.”

Mr Halford said the Thurncourt ward campaign had been denied resources by Mr Asmal, which could have tipped the balance.

He said he was baffled by the Leicestershire Area Conservatives taking over the campaign.

“It saddens me to resign but I feel I have no alternative," he said.

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LeicestershireLive contacted Mr Asmal for comment and was sent a statement by the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Area Conservatives.

In it, the group said the resignation of Mr Hickey and Mr Halford had been accepted.

It said: “The campaign team realised that there would be criticism of the campaign run in Leicester if Jack and Mikey were not successful.

“While we regret and understand their disappointment, the result for them was the same as in 2015 when they failed to achieve selection by the residents.

“The difference this time is that there was a massive objection vote from the electorate because we had not, due to the complexities of the process, delivered the promise made in the manifesto, and voted for in the referendum of leaving the EU on March 29, 2019.

“Unfortunately 1,300 excellent Conservative councillors throughout the country were not re-elected for the same reason, and as in the case of most major cities, Leicester suffered because of this.

“Incidentally, Jack Hickey was a part of the campaign team and both Jack and Mikey had their input into the Leicester manifesto.”

Leicestershire Elections 2019 news

The statement added: “At this election, for the first time ever, we had a full complement of Conservative councillor candidates in every area of the city, and an excellent mayoral candidate Baroness Verma who will in the future help Leicester to achieve greatness again.

“The Conservative campaign team obviously regret the results, but they are not in this for the short haul. We are building for the future and are going forwards with an improved infrastructure and 50 very loyal candidates to fight future elections.